Happy (Belated) Birthday To Me

I've decided to start chronicling the updates I'm doing in my home as a virtual scrapbook of sorts.  I also have the fantasy that years from now my kids will be excited to look back and fondly recall the transformation of our house through their childhood.

For years I've wanted to change the layout of my first floor bathroom so the toilet wasn't visible from the kitchen prep area.  I've thought about taking the shower out and moving the door so the entrance was further down the hall (this idea was squashed when our master bath pipes burst and I saw the utility of an extra shower), I considered swapping the toilet for the sink so at least the sink is what you saw when you looked in, I thought hard about teaching my sons to close the door when the used the bathroom (clearly and exercise in futility) and then finally, the idea hit me...I needed a "barn door" on a red track that I could open and close as needed.

After a multi-day search on Craigslist for the perfect door, I stumbled across this beauty:

It is an 1869 locally-created, metal-wrapped wood fire door out of a local factory in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.

It even had a metal track already attached.  I knew I had to have this so I called up my husband and asked if he wanted to get it for me for my birthday and luckily, he was more than happy to do so.

My sister-in-law and I took the exciting trek to and fro Philly to retrieve it. Our adventure included driving on the sidewalk, pulling random strangers off the street to help load it and then recruiting local pool guys in my neighborhood to unload it...this door is HEAVY!

This door lived in my garage for a few months until I decided who was going to hang it and how I was going to paint it.  I knew I wanted to paint it white to match the décor of my house but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about the hardware.  After much trial and error, my eye was most attracted to the door being painted a stark white.  I knew I wanted a red track to mimic the red curtain rod in the adjacent room

I used my favorite red spray paint, Rustoleum "Sunrise Red" which to me, it the closest match to the red already inside my house.

Finally, on July 4th, my door was hung.  Here is the photo my contractor send me before he left:

 

 

He added some silver washers that needed to be painted and also suggested that I remove the paint from the brass plaque and use it as a focal piece which he couldn't have been "right-on" about.  Here is a picture of "The Door" in its final incarnation:

 

 

 

Here is some cuteness to end the post with:

 

 



The Rabbit Hole

The end of the school year and the beginning of the summer have been a whirlwind.  I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole.  I'm slowly trying to claw my way back out. 

This past school year was the quickest one in history (at least for me).   Here are the fellas on the first day of school 2014:

And here they are on the last day 2015:

 

I have to say that I'm pretty relieved that to me, they don't look THAT much older.

I hope everyone is having an amazing summer!

New Kitchen Bench

Now that spring has begun to sprung, I have started refinishing furniture again which is sooo satisfying.  We needed more seating at our kitchen table for when the in-laws and friends are over.  The bench lives on the opposite side of the table but I moved it around for photography's-sake.

My first idea was to add another leaf to the table but considering this table was discontinued years ago, that idea was a bust (it took me months to realize this idea was not going to happen but we won't go through that right now).  I then went through trying to find 6 smaller side chairs to make the total seating at this table 8, but that was just too hard, everything I found (mostly on Craigslist), needed to be repainted and that was turning into too much of a time and money commitment.

My final (and best) idea was to put a bench on one side of the table which could seat at least 4 people.  I needed a bench that was 60 inches long and I wanted it to match my existing table and chairs.  I searched for days until I finally found this one on Wayfair.

The bench is unfinished, which I wanted and the style very closely mimics the style of my existing table.  Also, I have always been super-thrilled with Wayfair's prices and customer service so it was a win-win-win situation!

I ordered the bench and in the couple days before it arrived I thought about how I wanted to finish it.  I love how the butcher block top is the same as my table but I didn't want the "country" look of a stained surface.  I decided I would copy the antiqued white finish of the chair.

When the bench arrived, the legs needed to be attached, an easy process.  As it was unfinished, it didn't really require any prep before painting. 

 

 

I collected my supplies and got started painting.

 

 

 

I painted it with one coat of a white Sherwin-Williams furniture paint with no tint added. I rolled the top and painted the legs with a brush.

 



I let the one coat dry and then sanded the edges and sides to make it look older and also to hide the wear it will inevitably incur over time.

 

 

I then dusted the bench off and made a mixture of two parts glaze to one part wood stain. 

 

I used Valspar signature glaze, which I stocked-up on as it is now discontinued (but you can use any furniture glaze) and Minwax stain in "Dark Walnut" which doesn't have an orange tint to it, which I like.  The glaze is water-based and the stain is oil-based but they DO mix together for the purposes of an antiqued stain.  I mixed them in a red Solo cup with a chopstick, eying the amounts until it looked like the color I wanted.  I then brushed it on with an old paint brush (the paint brush won't survive after this job) and wiped it off with an old rag before it dried.

It's hard to see but the result is a subtle antiqued look.  To make it look more aged, you can distress it more and leave the stain/glaze solution on longer.  I wanted a lightly distressed/aged look.  I then sealed the top with two coats of the glaze.

It matches perfectly, it is super functional and best of all, Kleist approves!



Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all those past, present and future who have and will have served our military.  To quote Mark Twain "In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."

To celebrate Veteran's Day, I trash-picked a beautiful metal milk jug, originally from "Supplee" dairy in Philadelphia.  This beautiful red "chippy" piece has an eagle with outstretched wings...nothing says American more than Philadelphia, veterans, eagles and milk :)

Thanks again to all who have served!

Love and Luck 4 Picture Locket Necklace in Silver

A few years ago, I bought some vintage never-used silver lockets from a closing jewelry store.  I loved their shine, their ability to hold four pictures, their heart design that morphed into a four-leaf clover when they were open, etc. 

I hung these lockets from a sterling silver-heart link chain and the results are fabulous (if I do say so myself).  They have also been selling with frequency and since I only have a few lockets left, I thought I would share them here.

You can purchase these necklace here

Happy Monday!

Vanity Chair Makeover - and a new venture

As I do every year as the calendar nears its end, I have reassessed my commitment to my jewelry business.  While I love the (the majority) of people I have met through "Basil the Cat" and I'm super proud of my original designs, I realize that the key element to my business, passion, has started to lack.  My creative eye has started to wander and I have fallen in love with refurbishing furniture.  While I intend to keep "Basil the Cat" open, I plan on scaling down my designs, especially my one-of-a-kind creations and focusing more on pieces that I can more easily reproduce.  The majority of my creative juices will now be cathected to housewares, as "Elie the Cat" is born.

A couple of months ago, my cousin was throwing out this vintage vanity chair:

Not being able to imagine this piece ending-up in a landfill, I decided I needed to rescue it.  It was in pretty rough shape, it has been repainted green (which has begun to chip) and the vinyl seat was stained when I used it as a step stool to strip my curio cabinet.

I decided it was time to make this piece over.  My first stop was Jo-Ann fabric where I found a gorgeous remnant of vintage fabric for $2.00.

I took the seat off and removed all the staples that held the vinyl on (which I don't believe was original to the piece).  I then used the vinyl as a template for my fabric.

Starting on one side, I stapled the fabric on in overlapping pleats

I continued this all around the chair, cut the extra fabric, and voila...the new seat looked amazing!

 

 

I then took the metal part of the chair outside to spray paint it.  I had originally purchased a blue color to tie-in a small bit of blue in the fabric but I decided on a more antique-y white.  I covered the chair in white spray paint

 



and then I took some wood stain in "Dark Walnut" and brushed it on with a sponge brush and wiped it off before it dried to give it an aged look.  If some of the spots looked too dark, I reapplied the stain (counterintuitive, I know) and wiped it off again.  The result is a subtle aged look which I am totally in love with.

Not feeling like the seat was finished enough.  I decided to add a dust cover to the bottom

The End